7/20/10 (phnom penh)
Annie Lin
Phnom Penh
Today was our last full day in Cambodia. It's always a bit sad leaving a place that you have come to appreciate. We have spent a lot of time in PP, which has served as our base. In the morning I went down to the market to get some more soy milk and it warmed my heart that the milk lady remembered me. When you have been traveling for an extended period of time you can feel like a constant guest since you are never in one location for too long. So when someone recognizes you, you feel like one of them rather than an outsider.
When we returned to PP we made a list of things to accomplish and one of them being our blog. We made a promise to ourselves that we would get fully caught up on our blog before leaving Cambodia. Jon had been chipping away on his personal list which included finishing the Benjamin Franklin biography, posting photos and the bamboo train video on our blog, and updating his personal website. He spent the majority of the morning working his way through his list while I updated our daily detail page.
We decided for lunch to try a Khmer restaurant that I had been reading about called Romdeng. The cool thing about the restaurant is that it works to get kids off the street by providing them with work in the restaurant under the supervision of a teacher. Like an apprenticeship. The students get on the job training as well as many important life skills. Once they reach a certain age the restaurant helps them find jobs so they don't return to the streets. The restaurant had a peaceful aura about it as everyone greets you with a prayer bow. I noticed that the students also bow to the teachers as they leave the restaurant as a sign of respect. The other thing that Romdeng is known for is their fried tarantula. We debated ordering it but decided to try other dishes. They allow half portions so we order four dishes, which turned out to be a lot of food. We had so much food that there was plenty to take home for lunch tomorrow. The food was very flavorful and the service was great. The student waitstaff were a little nervous and always had a teacher next to them. Some of them were still learning English so the teacher would translate for them. It was wonderful to see the interaction and learning taking place. It reminded me of CCA and what great impact culinary schools can have on students. I believe it's places like Romdeng that offers real life training to the youth who otherwise would be on the streets that will help Cambodian's next generation thrive.
After lunch, On Prum helped me seek out Kampot peppers. I heard that Kampot peppers are world famous so decided to purchase some for Chef McDang as a thank-you gift. After some investigating we found a shop that sells them and would deliver it to me.
I was really full from lunch and all I could think about was a nap but Jon rallied the troop and we worked on our blog. It's a lot of work to maintain the blog and we often call it our full-time job. To post the pictures, Jon has to vet through hundreds of them and select the best ones that capture the essence of our time in a country. Then he color corrects each one of them. After he is done, he posts them on the blog. We then go in and add a caption of each one. It's quite a process. But it always feels good to close the loop on a task (if you don't know what this means read Getting Things Done...great book).
After accomplishing my blog task Jon allowed me to snooze for a bit while he continued working. He is a working machine!
We went down to Metro for our final dinner in Cambodia. We figured it was fitting since our first meal was also at Metro. We had a great time chatting with the staff, laughing at more of Mr. Dan's jokes, and saying farewell to the staff we wouldn't see the next day before leaving for the airport.
If you visit Phnom Penh and are in need of a tuk-tuk driver, we recommend On Prum. He takes pride in his tuk-tuk and his English is better than most drivers. He also has a van if you have a large party. You can contact him via 012-919-315 (international code not included) or prumon2002@yahoo.com if you would like to arrange for transportation ahead of time. He can create full-day tours depending on your interest.
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